Mindarie was built around a marina, which is unusual for Perth and is the first thing anybody mentions about it. It was established in 1988 with the construction of Mindarie Marina, one of the largest man made marina resorts in the state.
More than one in four residents was born in England. At 26.2% it sits alongside Connolly at the very top of that list, and with nearly eight thousand people it is more than twice the size.
The One Thing People Get Wrong
The marina is not the town centre, and you will not be doing your shopping there.
Mindarie Keys is restaurants, a hotel, boats and a very good view. It is where you take visitors and where you end up on a Sunday. It is not where you buy school shoes or do a weekly shop, and a small number of people buy here imagining otherwise.
The everyday centre is Clarkson, a few minutes east, which has the shopping centre and the train station. Mindarie itself has no station. Clarkson station is about three and a half kilometres from the marina, on the Yanchep line, and the train reaches the city in about thirty five minutes once you are on it.
So the marina is a genuinely lovely thing to live near, and it is a weekend asset rather than a daily one.
Schools
Mindarie Primary School is on Rio Marina Way in the suburb itself. Peter Moyes Anglican Community School is also in Mindarie and runs from early learning through to year twelve, which is unusual this far north and is one reason families with older children look here. It is an independent school and charges fees.
For state secondary schooling, children generally travel to the surrounding suburbs. Check the specific catchment for the street you are looking at rather than for the suburb, because they do not always line up.
The Australian school year starts in late January and finishes in December. It does not run September to July. If you are arriving mid year your children will be joining part way through, and if you are timing your move around schooling you are aiming at January rather than September.
What It Is Actually Like
Coastal, established rather than brand new, and noticeably more grown up than the estates further north. The median age is 45, so this is a suburb of families whose children are at school rather than in prams.
Housing runs from nineties builds to newer places near the water, and anything with a marina or ocean outlook carries a premium that is obvious the moment you look at listings.
The coast here is the reason people stay. Quinns Rocks beach is immediately south and the coastal path runs for miles in both directions.
Being Honest About Mindarie
It is thirty six kilometres from the city with no station of its own, so if one of you is commuting to the CBD daily you are committing to a drive and then a train, every day, both ways.
It is not cheap. The marina and the coast are priced in, and you will pay more here than in Butler or Jindalee for a comparable house.
And with a quarter of the suburb born in England, anyone hoping to land somewhere that feels entirely unlike home should know that in advance. Plenty of people choose Mindarie for exactly that reason, and a few are surprised by it.
The Questions We Cannot Answer Here
Mortgages, visas, insurance and shipping come up constantly, and we are not licensed to advise on any of them. What we can do is point you at the firms in our directory who are, and who deal with British and Irish arrivals every week.
Ask Somebody Who Lives There
40,000+ British and Irish people in Perth are in our community, across the group, page and Instagram, and a good number of them live in Mindarie. If you want to know whether it suits your family, ask them. It is free to join, and somebody will answer within the hour, usually several somebodies with strong opinions.